Debt: Money, Narrative, Belief - Call for Papers

Call for Papers

Debt: Money/Narrative/Belief
Department of English
Graduate Student Conference
Dalhousie University, Halifax N.S.
August 17-19, 2012

In her 2008 Massey Lectures, Margaret Atwood calls debt “that peculiar nexus where money, narrative or story, and religious belief intersect, often with explosive force.” Today, we are facing an explosion of discourses foregrounding financial debt. Whether in the Euro Zone Debt Crisis, the Occupy Wall Street Movement, or rising student loan debt, narrative and debt cannot be decoupled, nor can they be detached from a given political or affective investment. In addition to the obvious economic concerns, we are also interested in widening the discussion of debt: How do literature and cultural products help us make sense of these issues? In what ways are individual authors and texts indebted to the social, cultural, or historical moment in which they are situated? How are current and historic discourses—be they social, literary, or philosophical—shaped by representations of debt and indebtedness?

Since few know more about debt than graduate students, the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students in English (DAGSE) invites submissions for paper presentations for
its interdisciplinary graduate student conference: “Debt: Money/Narrative/Belief.” We welcome proposals from students at all levels and in all areas of graduate study. This three-day conference will be held August 17-19, 2012 at Dalhousie University, located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will investigate the ways in which literature, history, art, and culture shape and are shaped by discourses and experiences of debt.

We invite proposals for papers (15-20 minutes) on themes and subjects including, but not limited to:

• Literary and cultural debts: mentors, movements, sources of influence
• Marxist literary theory; the sociology of literature; cultural materialism
• The Great Depression; the current Depression
• Gambles, speculation, debtors’ prison
• Wills, inheritance, legacies
• Crashes, scams and financial scandals
• Deals with the Devil
• Religious debts (alms giving, sacrifice, forgiveness, etc.)
• Colonial aftermaths; reparations
• Genre literature, genre studies
• Plagiarism, quotation, “borrowing”
• Worlds without capitalism: utopias and speculative fiction

Submission: 250-word abstract plus cover letter with name, current level of graduate study, affiliated university, and email address to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Include the words “conference abstract” in subject line, and include name on the cover letter only.

Deadline: March 15, 2012. Accepted presenters will receive notification by the end of April.

Contact the Organizers at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have questions about the conference.

Public Speaking Tip: How to Use Storytelling

Scott Ginsberg talks about the “PIP” method, which is a three-part framework for improvising stories.

How Social Media Reconstructs Storytelling

Chris Riley, of studioriley, discusses an emerging global narrative created by many voices. (Via PSFK.)

How to Be a Hero in Art, Sales, Service, and Story

Ever run out of gas and someone stopped to pour a gallon into your tank for free? They became your hero! Remember what it was like to hear an artist articulate something that spoke a truth to you so deeply you nearly cried? That artist became your hero! Have you ever wished there was an easier way to get from point A to point B only to discover a service provider that helps you do just that? The service became your hero!

Forget about making the customer the hero. Take action and become a hero yourself! The customer is the dude or damsel in distress. Save them! Save them from their bad breath, their boring life, their poor choices, or their terrible job.

In the image above you can see the person in location A. They want to cross the chasm to location B. How will they get across? This situation frames the plot and the story unfolds in the distance between the two points. A hero provides a means to the end. In this case the hero is (or provided) a red bridge that literally carries the person across the gap. When you act as the hero, your action becomes the bridge that safely takes someone from here to there.

To apply this idea, you must understand the needs of your customer or audience and know what you are willing to risk in order to help them reach their goal. If your client wants a website, you make them one. If they need new tires, give them tires. If they want to be enlightened, enlighten them.

Whenever you interact with someone you’re creating a story. Keep that story in mind and it will shape your actions. Your actions create the tale that later gets told about you. Be the hero to your customer and they will tell a positive story with you or your product as a major player in their story.

To be the hero you need to skillfully and swiftly provide the product, service, or experience that your audience needs in order to bridge their gap, thus taking them from point A to point B in their personal journey.

Tether: Creating a Loved Brand by Telling a Story

This is an interview with Stanley Hainsworth of Tether, Inc. He’s the former creative director at Nike and also worked for Lego and Starbucks. In this video he talks about story and storytelling in branding. It’s interesting to hear his approach. When the interviewer asks what he means by “story,” Hainsworth explains that all successful brands tell a story.

StoryTalk Categories

• Applied Narrative
• Art, Culture, Design
• Conferences & Festivals
• Opportunities
• Questions

Search this Site

View the Archive